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Tour takes you to bay area's favorite haunts

If you are interested in the occult, ghost tours may be just for you. The first of a series exploring the bay area already is available in Madeira Beach.

By ROBERT SAMUELS
Published February 13, 2005

Meet Arachne, a middle-aged, purple-haired spider woman.

Some call her the "Queen of Haunts."

Her Madeira Beach neighbors and friends call her Deborah, that woman who just moved from St. Paul, Minn.

With a strong accent akin to a fortune-telling Gypsy, Arachne this weekend began leading ghost tours through the boardwalk area near John's Pass, describing the entertainment center's haunted past.

Madeira Beach is the first of four cities where costumed performers from Tampa Bay Ghost Tours tell tales of the region's haunted lore. Tours in St. Pete Beach are scheduled to start in March, Gulfport's will start in April and St. Petersburg's are planned to start in May.

The spider woman will write the tour scripts for all cities, combining the paranormal with local legend.

And she has a legend or two of her own. One goes like this:

Years ago, Deborah Frethem was an unhappy banker in Minnesota with a strong Midwestern accent. She had degrees in theater and history, so she began leading historical tours. On those tours, she would perform as a gangster, a Scandinavian immigrant and other characters.

This past December, she was visiting the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant in Madeira Beach when she felt scorching heat on her shoulder. She smelled ashes from a cigar and heard the voice of Capt. Wilson Hubbard, the restaurant's founder. But Hubbard has been dead for more than a decade.

After the encounter, Frethem transformed into Arachne.

Meanwhile, glasses continue to fall at the restaurant's bar twice a week, Arachne says. Some think it's Hubbard's spirit searching for his favorite glass of rum.

Similar haunts exist from the boardwalk to the beaches.

Another legend claims that every sunrise, the spirit of an American Indian woman sits at the shore along the Gulf of Mexico and waits for the dashing pirate Juan Ortiz to come back to her. This tale might have sparked the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, said Bill Martin, who performs his stories costumed as an English crewman.

"People think John Smith stole the story because he didn't talk about Pocahontas until five years after she was dead," Martin said. "And it's a great story talking, about how Indian women wanted them."

Mystical as the ghost stories seem, tour guides say they have some historical truths. The tour company asked local residents about stories they had heard and researched them in libraries, newspaper archives and on the Internet.

Whether their spirits stroll through Village Boulevard is questionable, but the majority of the characters mentioned on the ghost tour once lived, said Mark Hubbard, tour company president and son of Wilson Hubbard.

"We're trying to give people some historical knowledge about the area," Hubbard said. "The tours add a nice, more family-oriented venue for John's Pass."

But at least one story has a more risque theme.

The property at 12801 Village Blvd. used to house prostitutes on its second floor. A fire destroyed the entire floor, turning it into a one-story place.

Those who work in DeLosa's Pizzeria, which occupies the property, sometimes hear those women running around on the nonexistent second floor. They also hear the stomps and clinks of a man with a peg leg following them.

"Hey," Arachne said, "pirates need love, too."

For more information on the ghost tours, contact 727 398-5200 or visit www.allthebesthaunts.com

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:07:16]